We Have Always Done It That Way

What would happen if you took the first draft of something you were writing and actually published and distributed it? We know this feels counterintuitive””why not wait until it has been reviewed, edited, proofed, etc.? Why risk tarnishing your image by putting something out there that is still rough around the edges?

Of course, rhetorical questions like these are precisely why we are writing this book. Those questions assume that the way we used to do it is the way we should do it today””an assumption that mistakenly discounts the speed of change in today’s environment. While “products” have traditionally been tested, refined, and developed within the walls of an organization and then released as finished goods, the influence of the software development community is changing the way things are done. The software industry has been able to grow and be more effective by actually releasing “beta” versions of programs. Users recognize that these products are not finished (thus not perfect), but in exchange for the rough edges, they get to provide feedback to the designers and actually have an impact on the final product. This concept has now been extended to the book publishing field as well, particularly by Pragmatic Programmers Press.

And if you are reading this in hard copy form, then you are experiencing this trend first hand. The five authors of this book decided months ago to write a book, titled “We’ve Always Done It That Way: 101 Things the Association Community Must Change.” Not content to release only a final version, we have been posting sections of the book to the Always Done it That Way blog for some time. With approximately one third of the text written, we decided to publish a small amount of hard copies in beta format. With this limited distribution we intend to get feedback from readers””we want your help in creating a final product that people will find useful, inspiring, and thought-provoking (you can actually provide feedback on the book’s blog at http://www.alwaysdoneitthatway.com).

We are not “concerned” about publishing this draft, because we are open to seeing the value in new ways of doing things. We know that beta publishing demonstrates our trust and faith in our customers. We know that customers that are involved in the creation of the product are more likely to evangelize it. We know that the meaning and relevance of the word “polished” are changing, and we are willing to change the way we have always done things in order to be more successful. Are you?

Tags: The Way We Execute, We've Always Done It That Way by Jamie
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So the Always Done It That Way crew is made up of five GenXers (if you haven’t figured that out by now). Three men, two women…all of us are consultants and all of us are business owners. With this said…

Very recently I attended a professional association conference (of which I am a member) where the membership is all women. I belong to a few of these groups, so identification will be difficult (although several of these groups are dealing with the same issue). They want to recruit young GenX and millenial women from to join the organization and to eventually be on the Board. Many associations are discussing the issue of how to recruit “younger” members. I can’t speak for my entire generation, but I do have some insight on recruiting GenX women….so here it goes.

Some Background -
The Board of this organization is mostly women 50 and older with a couple of token 40-somethings. Basically the female version of the “old white male” Board structure we see in the association world. The Board selected a keynoter for the conference who spoke about generational issues using data that was at least 10 years out of date - and again, an over 50 white female. The requirements to sit on the Board include attendance at the two annual conferences the organization hosts plus a whole bunch of other hoops. From an educational point of view, the content at the conference is weak - thus few people beyond senior volunteer leaders attend. Sessions are led, again, by Boomer+ women and this time a few minority women are included in the bunch.

Are you seeing the picture yet?

The one saving grace - the Board did have enough insight to hire a GenX female Executive Director (that get’s it). Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much guidance they really take from her. But I do have to give the Board credit for recognizing that they need to make significant changes to the organization to exist going forward.

I think you can begin to see my point here, but I’ll continue….

So after the first day of the conference I can’t tell you how many Board members pulled me and other token GenX participants aside to ask how the organization can do a better job of recruiting members “like us”.

Here is my off-the-top-of-my-head snap shot of what your association is competing with right now. And keep in mind GenX women are dealing with many of the same issues.

GenX women are of child bearing age. I happen to have two small children (2 1/2 and 11 months) - and miss them terribly.
A husband who likes to see my face occasionally versus our long daily string of instant messages.
A growing business (and travel quite a bit) - the office manager often questions who I am.
A large family and a group of friends - all of whom wonder where I am most of the time.
A stack of 50 great business books and industry publications sitting in my office that I want to get to.
A laundry list of business questions I want answers to NOW, not in six months when the next conference takes place.

Frankly, many of these issues are not GenX specific. However, I would add the following general characteristics…

- My generation of women is the first to fully view ourselves as peers and equals to our male counterparts. Title IX helped with that. And, we are the first generation to graduate in larger numbers than men. We expect equality with men AND women - and frankly everyone.

- We watched our loyal Boomer+ parents get fired and laid off from companies they spent their whole lives serving. So we’re not too interested in “organizational loyalty”. You will have to prove it to us that participation in your association is truly valuable to my professional goals.

Two big business isssues for me now - (1) how to create a business “dashboard” that include financial and other data that relates to a growing consulting practice. AND (2) I want to meet three to five other business consultants who have growing consulting practices. I want to get in a room with them for a day and pick their brains. However, this format is not available at the conference. Just a whole bunch of speakers spreading their “wisdom” about business issues.

So to sit on the Board or become a more senior leader within the organization you are asking us GenX women to spend $500+ on registration, $200+tax a night on hotel for three nights, plus travel to attend a two-day conference with questionable content? All so I can sit on the Board to “represent” the GenX crowd and possibly help you fix your “recruitment” problem?

Here is my free advice on your “recruitment problem”…

(1) Ask GenXers what it takes to get them to join a professional association. Don’t listen to consultants or anyone else - especially those with out-of-date generational information.
(2) LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN. Actually listen to what GenXers have to say.
(3) Do something about it today - not create a two-year plan on recruiting GenXers - make the changes quickly.
(4) Get smart GenX members into the organization at the highest levels…and not just one token GenXer at the Board table. If that means you have to loosen some of your requirements, do so.
(5) Make membership valuable. Provide challenging and interesting content presented by a wide range of people and allow for opportunities to collaborate with other like-minded members.

If your organization takes too long to make significant changes to attract GenXers, they will go start a competing organization that meets their needs. In this day and age it’s easy to do.

Tags: Professional Development, Innovation, Leadership, We've Always Done It That Way by Amy
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Many associations collect demographic data from their members when they join or renew their membership. Sometimes this can be as simple as a few check boxes to more involved multi-page surveys. When dues invoices could only be sent via postal mail, it made sense to piggy back a data collection tool with it to save money on postage and take advantage of the member’s attention.

However, just because it works well in snail mail doesn’t mean you should do it online. For example, the cost-saving benefit goes away when you invoice for dues via e-mail or accept a new member via your web site. Another challenge is that conducting an online survey of a member before they can renew is much more invasive of an interruption than including a paper form in the mail. Making online payment challenging by requiring extraneous forms to be completed reduces the benefits of paying online to your members, which will raise your costs when they choose to go with traditional methods such as calling you or mailing in forms that need to be processed.

When a member has made the decision to invest more money in the association by purchasing a product or paying dues online, get out of their way and make it as easy as possible for them to complete the transaction.

Tags: Membership, We've Always Done It That Way by David
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Massive web site redesigns are often very disruptive. Significant changes to navigation and overall design will confuse your current users who knew how to work with the old site, no matter how unfriendly it may have been. How can you improve the site without creating this disruption?

Instead of waiting for a big redesign to make changes, look at making small, incremental changes every week that each improve the site a small amount. Over time, these will add up to a significant difference. Additionally, the change will be gradual so that your visitors can adjust to the changes easily as they happen, avoiding a big disruption.

For example, Yahoo! has added new options to their home page frequently throughout the years. Each addition was just a small change however the change from a few years ago compared to today is jarring.

Tags: Technology, We've Always Done It That Way by David
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Traditional meeting planning processes often require that a session proposal be submitted six months before the event will actually be held. Given the speed with which our world changes today, that strikes me as an unacceptably long time in which to lock-in the majority of your event’s content. Certainly, some content must be planned that far out but it is really necessary to do so for everything?

There have been many recently developments in events for technical audiences, where a high level theme is established for a meeting but then the content to be presented is decided upon by the participants themselves, on site at the meeting. How do they get speakers, you may ask? They are the attendees themselves. This kind of conference model, called an unconference, allows the event to be as closely matched to the interests of the participants as they can.

Associations should explore adapting this model if they want to empower their meetings participants to be a critical part of the experience of their event.

Tags: We've Always Done It That Way by David
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How many organizations have you joined in order to get a 5% discount? Not too many, I would guess. However, this kind of benefit is often a huge focus of associations in their membership marketing materials and the affinity partnerships that they develop. If you look back at the origins of most associations, they had no benefits like this at the start. It was association for the sake of associating and wanting to make a difference. We need to make sure we continue to offer meaning behind our memberships.

I recently heard a member of an association state that he wanted the image of his association to make him proud to be a member of both the organization and the profession it represents. Now that is a reason to join! How proud does your organization make your members?

Tags: Membership, We've Always Done It That Way by David
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In our work together, my co-author Jamie Notter and I frequently use the following quotation from Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic:

“Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.”

Most associations in which I’ve been involved are quite adroit at articulating grand statements of vision and mission. They are less good, however, at venturing something real to help make those intentions come true. And yet, as Havel’s words confirm, we will never accomplish anything important unless we are prepared to risk something in the process. Throughout human history, no meaningful achievement of any consequence has ever been attempted, let alone completed, without the expectation and acceptance of risk. It’s time for association staff and volunteer leaders to recognize this inescapable fact.

Of course, by venture, I don’t mean the reckless and uninformed pursuit of just any opportunity that may present itself. Venture must be a strategic endeavor, guided by a clear sense of both realism and possibility. Risk is something to be managed and, if possible, leveraged to the benefit of the organization and its members. It can be done, but only if leaders are willing to challenge their associations to “step up the stairs.”

Tags: Strategy, Innovation, Leadership, We've Always Done It That Way by Jeff
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Even today, too many associations drive their web site design and structure by how they work internally. This usually comes from simply extending current operations to the Web rather than thinking about the entirety of their web site and how well it serves their mission and members. Not having a single person who is ultimately responsible for the overall direction and success of the site contributes to this problem as well.

Associations must consider their web sites from the perspective of their members and other site visitors. Why do members come to your site? What do they want to accomplish? How can your web site provide value to them? Answering those questions will put you on the path to creating a site that meets their needs.

Tags: We've Always Done It That Way by David
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This posting deserves the one word title “Change”.

In the frame of “always done it that way” I would define “change” this way…

A painfully slow, political, arduous, tiring, grueling, time consuming, onerous process that must involve every possible stakeholder imaginable before creating a plan to implement the change.

Why do I mock the collaborative nature of change within our community? Because all too often we ask too many people to provide input into the changes that need to be made.

Let’s talk examples here - and let’s see if this hits home for any other readers.

ABC association is getting ready to recreate the Board of Directors so they move from a tactical board to a more strategic one. The Board determines that membership feedback is important so it casts a painfully wide net and gets a pretty predictable response. Those who can’t handle change complain very loudly. Those who are in strong support of the change state their support and a wide majority of members don’t understand the inner workings of the organization well enough to care. So after 6, 8, 10 or more months of soliciting feedback, the new structure is approved.

This process seems to happen everywhere. But why do many organizations put so much time, energy and effort into the loud minority of the naysayers?

If change is going to (1) positively impact the bottom line - and you can prove that, (2) make the job functions of volunteers easier, (3) provide higher value to the membership - then I say ask forgiveness and spend much less time on asking for permission. I realize this is easier said than done with bylaw changes, etc. But I think we spend way too much time in the approval process of change than we do actually implementing it.

Tags: Leadership, We've Always Done It That Way by Amy
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While I am a huge fan of Jim Collins, Good to Great has been over used in many association circles. But the book’s concept of getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off, and the right people in the right seats is truly critical to the long-term success of associations and non-profits.

However, here is a classic, always done it that way, item…

“Let’s keep dead weight staff on board until they retire.”

Now you have to understand that one of my first jobs out of college was working for a very elite management consulting firm, where the average tenure for new hires is about 1-1/2 years. You either moved up or out - and there was no other way in that organization. This environment ensured that only the most highly motivated and highest calliber individuals stuck around. The firm even went so far that when it was decided that you were not moving up, they paid you to conduct a full-time job search to move out. What a novel concept!

What is the deal with associations holding on to dead weight staffers (and senior managers) who are underperforming, toxic to productive employees, or even worse, are just the wrong people on the bus? I wonder what people are thinking by keeping these folks on board? Really, think about it. In a corporate environment productivity is critical. Why do we as an industry not place more value on productivity? When I say productivity, I don’t mean simply cranking out the same ole’ stuff, but creating new, exciting, highly valued products and services for members.

On a similar note — why are the same people doing the same job for 15, 20 or more years? I’d suggest that if the same person has been doing the same job for that long, it is time for a change, both for the organization and the individual. Now keep in mind, I didn’t say fire that person if they are productive, but help them find a new seat on the bus.

And for everyone’s sake, get rid of those who don’t belong on the bus!

Tags: We've Always Done It That Way by Amy
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Am I the only one who thinks the notion of the “checkbook member,” i.e., the member who writes a check once a year so he or she can receive a magazine or other materials, is an unmitigated travesty that should not be tolerated in the association community? (Boy, that felt good to get off my chest. I do offer a sincere apology, however, if you now have to be irritated just so that I can feel better! Such is the nature of this particular beast, I’m afraid…)

Frankly, I find the whole phenomenon of the checkbook member–not to mention the matter-of-fact way so many association professionals speak of it–to be a genuine embarrassment for organizations in our community. In a time when tens of thousands of software developers are volunteering to create open source applications and so many of our organizations are struggling to find qualified contributors to our work, I regard the idea that we should call someone a member simply because he pays dues every year to be anathema.

So, let’s do a little math. Let’s say my organization has 20,000 members, of which perhaps merely 10% are involved in association activities. To my way of thinking, I actually have a membership of 2,000 and a subscriber base of 18,000 people. Why should I include in a membership count people who demonstrate no interest in making a meaningful contribution to the organization’s success? To enhance my clout in public policy? To satisfy my board’s desire to see the raw membership numbers increase every year? To burnish my resume? Membership should not be defined by the act of making payment, no matter what form that payment might take. Associations are supposed to be about authentic relationships. A financial transaction is not a relationship, no matter how much we might like it to be. A relationship can form only between people who are interested in it seeing it form and who are willing to work hard to sustain and strengthen it over time.

From a business model perspective, the end of the checkbook member would be a real plus. If they could reclassify their checkbook members as subscribers, I bet many associations today would dramatically increase their revenues very quickly. Freed from having to underprice valuable offers in the name of “good member service,” associations could charge subscribers whatever the market would bear. In fact, I think getting rid of the checkbook member would actually be a very positive development for the soul of the association membership function. Once the difference between members and customers (or members and subscribers) is absolutely crystal clear, it will challenge all of us to figure out what we really value and exactly how much we value it. That can only be a good thing.

I understand that what I’m suggesting here flies directly in the face of the association orthodoxy. Good. We are long overdue to be vigorously questioning the highly questionable assumptions that still drive thinking in our organizations. (Hence, this blog.) I, for one, say, “No more checkbook members!” Who will join me in this heresy?

Tags: Strategy, Membership, We've Always Done It That Way by Jeff
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Another title could be, “Where is the Executive Director and/or the President of the Board?”

An artful relationship exists between an association’s executive director and the president of the board of directors. One representing the staff side and the other representing the profession or industry. However, occasionally one has to wonder what either party is doing when volunteers send staff on wild goose chases. OR better yet, one of these two parties sends staff on random assignment wasting staff resources on pet projects.

Wondering what I’m referring to? The random requests made by volunteer leaders of association staff members. Things outside the scope of the primary purpose of the organization…or those tasks or assignments that have not been thought through but eat away at staff time.

I witnessed just this kind of activity a while ago in a volunteer role. Six staff members spent an entire day putting together token gifts for new members. The idea, while not bad, was never thought out and was completely last minute. But what was most surprising was that the executive director didn’t step in to set some expectations for the project — or better yet, outsource it to a fulfillment house. After some inquiry, staff members told me that this is typical in this volunteer-driven organization. I was shocked. It makes me wonder where the board president is and why the president isn’t reigning in the volunteer leaders? And why does the staff feel compelled to say “yes” to every project that gets thrown at them? And where is the executive director in all of this?

I’m wondering how many other organizations have similar situations? At the December 2005 Great Ideas Conference, I was reading some of the ‘Sacred Cow BBQ‘ comments in the creativity room. Several of the comments focused on similar issues.

I think many organizations have never been truly bottom-line focused and therefore do not seem to value how staff account for their time. Executive directors and presidents may want to periodically examine the path in which new projects enter the staff pipeline.

Tags: Leadership, We've Always Done It That Way by Amy
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As a volunteer, I recently participated in an association’s national conference program planning committee. While I was very excited to be asked to participate, it became clear very quickly that my participation as a volunteer was no more than a token invitation. There was one conference call that took place to “discuss” the program. While only two other committee members could attend, I assumed that we would have subsequent calls to design the conference”¦wishful thinking on my part. After one conference call with the conference chair (also a volunteer) and one other committee member, it turns out that that was it. No more communication regarding the program. I just received the conference program in the mail. The conference was ultimately planned by the organization’s staff and the conference chair.

This situation really begs an interesting question, why bother asking members to participate in a volunteer “committee” if you are not going to use their advice and input? Why not claim that it is what it is — a staff decision (in this case)?

I know that program planning isn’t the only place where volunteers are asked to provide input, only for that input to be “token”. As a member, I find this incredibly wasteful of my time. But I think it also speaks to a bigger issue, is the staff so well versed in the pressing business issues our members face that they feel comfortable planning content for our only annual event? I think numbers speak for themselves because only a small fraction of our members attend the national conference.

Food for thought ““ association staffers need to realize that program decision-making needs to be a collaborative process with practitioners from the field providing input. Volunteers need to realize that association staffers know how to plan the details of events. Each party needs to stay in their own area of expertise.

Tags: Professional Development, We've Always Done It That Way by Amy
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Blasphemy, I know, but hear me out. I can have a great idea and you can have a great idea, but is my idea going to be great for you, and yours great for me? (If you can follow that sentence, you’re approved to read on.)

Next time you’re at a conference, when a speaker starts presenting their “great ideas” for how to do something, notice how many people around the room are ferociously scribbling all the ideas down. This is when I get a little uncomfortable. The sharing of ideas is great ““ if I’m there, I’ll probably be scribbling the ideas down too. What concerns me is that presenters often advocate their ideas as golden rules, and what concerns me more is that many participants seem to buy what the presenters are selling.

We need to be clear that just because one person’s “great idea” was proven successful for a particular situation(s), that’s little to no indication for how it will play out for another organization. (An analogy for all you parents out there: did all those great ideas you collected for handling your first child work identically for all your children?! How about those great ideas you were offered from other parents with swears of success ““ did they all work for you? Of course not. In fact, many were probably contradictory.)

We all need to recognize that any idea we hear, no matter how successful it was in a given situation, is only a “potentially great idea” to us (a PGI, that is, because the association world needs a few more acronyms). It’s up to us to determine what the potential success of that idea will be in our particular situation.

Hmmm, do you think ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership will rename their conference “Potentially Great Ideas Conference”? Okay, maybe not.

Now, go forth and collect all the ideas you can, but scrutinize them well to find your gems.

Tags: Innovation, We've Always Done It That Way by Mickie
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I often get phone calls from association executives stating they’ve decided to create a certification program and want to know how I can help them to make it happen. What I say next likely really annoys them”¦for a few minutes anyway. I suggest they consider “un-making” that decision…at least temporarily. I know that’s not an easy thing to do in the association-world”¦after all, you’ve already gotten approval from a task force, a standing committee, a house of delegates, and a board of directors”¦.but often the decision to develop a certification program is made prematurely and if the wrong decision, it can be a costly one.

Here are three reasons I hear for starting a certification program that make my eyes uncontrollably roll back (and despite what my mother told me, they’ve not gotten stuck that way”¦yet):

TO MAKE REVENUE
Associations can generate revenue from certification programs, but it usually takes several years to turn a profit and some never do (yes, some are wildly successful). My point is that making revenue can certainly be a goal and/or a measure of success of a certification program, but it should NOT be the primary purpose.

TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE AT EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
Trust me on this one: developing a certification program with mandated continuing education so that individuals will have to go to your conferences to get that education is NOT a good idea. Here’s a better idea: improve your conferences!

BECAUSE A COMPETING ASSOCIATION HAS ONE AND YOU CAN DO IT BETTER
A little secret: every association thinks their programs are better than their competitors. Maybe they are; maybe they aren’t, but trying to one-up the competition is not a good reason to start a certification program, especially if theirs has a solid market share already. Of course, it’s possible that you can create a unique and more valuable program and be successful, but this should not be the primary reason to start a program.

Sometimes an association that initially presents these not-good-enough reasons eventually determines that certification is a wise strategic decision; sometimes they don’t. The key is to agree to step back and strategically consider what you are trying to accomplish and determine if certification is the most effective strategy for accomplishing it. Yes, this may delay progress for a month or two, but it may very well save your association a costly mistake or help develop a certification program that’s much stronger for it.

Tags: Professional Development, We've Always Done It That Way by Mickie
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Over the years we’ve heard a lot of association executives complain about the decisions their boards or committees have made or are heading towards. “Why would they do that?” and “Man, they just don’t get it,” we’ve heard over and over again. The commonly-held belief that the volunteer leaders make the decisions and staff implement them seems to have become an easy escape from responsibility.

It’s time for change. It’s time to stop complaining and do something about it.

As the executive director or senior staff executive, take responsibility for informing the leadership. Make sure they have considered all the options and potential ramifications of each. Develop white papers or bring in experts. If you have a concern with the direction they are heading, speak up. If personal agendas are taking over, call them on it.

Of course, be smart about it - your timing and presentation are critical. And, if you feel your board doesn’t want or respect your opinion, then you need to consider why that is. Are you being condescending? Defensive? Seemingly biased? It’s crucial that you make yourself a respected and valued part of the decision-making. Just because you may not have an official vote in the final decision, that doesn’t mean you should just let the discussions and decisions go where they may.

Don’t be a victim. Take control. Take responsibility. Will this guarantee you’ll agree with all the decisions that are made? Of course not, but at least you’ll know they were informed ones.

Tags: Leadership, We've Always Done It That Way by Mickie
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In my frank opinion, the sooner associations move away from traditional conferences, the better. A highly controversial statement, I know. Merriam-Webster defines “conference” as (1) a meeting of two or more persons for discussing matters of common concern, or (2) a usually formal interchange of views.

I would argue that many conferences do a terrible job of those two things. The key words being “discussing” and “interchange”. For the first definition, we tend to subject our members to old-school, classroom-style learning experiences (sometimes with dimmed lights) and dreaded PowerPoint presentations. Little “discussion” occurs in most of these sessions. In looking at the second definition, conference sessions rarely allow for a ‘formal interchange of views’. They are simply one-way lectures with a few minutes of Q&A.

Ask any conference attendee where the value is and you will most likely here, “in the hallways” or “at the social functions”. Why? Becuase this is the place where real-time business issues can be addressed. But why don’t we foster this more across our association industry?

What would happen if you asked a typical conference attendee the following questions:

1. What is your #1 most pressing business issue you need to address in the next six months?

2. What is that business issue costing your company/organization?

3. What kind of information or interactions do you need in order to address this issue?

4. What would you pay if you knew that you could get assistance in adressing that issue by participanting in a learning experience? (notice I didn’t say conference)

These four questions alone can generate some very interesting results. By simply asking these questions (instead of filling out worthless smile sheet evaluations) associations can begin to position themselves as the knowledge center of their industry or profession. This also fundamentally changes the role of association educators to become learning facilitators, not just speaker inviters.

These four questions also allow educators to begin to reshape conference formats, features, and functions. Instead of inviting speakers to be the ’sage on the stage’ you are invited them to become the ‘guide on the side’ - a learning facilitator. It also confirms the need to create knowledge resources before, during, and after face-to-face meetings.

Social networking tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc.) help individuals connect in a way that was never possible before. Using these tools as a way to generate grass-roots knowledge adds significant value to the learning experience. In addition, it can make face-to-face experiences more valuble because members can network with peers electronically beforehand, get useful information just-in-time, and can interact with individuals and information in a way that is not currently wide-spread.

As you begin a new planning cycle for conferences, why not completely rethink the way you “host” learning experiences?

Tags: Technology, Professional Development, Innovation, We've Always Done It That Way by Amy
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There is growing interest in associations around blogging, podcasting and social media tools. FINALLY! It’s about time we woke up and smelled the Marble Mocha Macchiato. We are long overdue to recognize these technologies are like manna from heaven for associations, and to begin capitalizing on them in our work.

Social media are all about participation, about getting people involved in creating and sharing content and engaging in conversations that are important to them. Indeed, the whole direction of the Web is moving toward the deeper engagement of the end user in more authentic and generative ways. In this spirit, blogging, podcasting, wikis, Flickr, del.icio.us and other social media tools offer associations the opportunity to establish entirely new relationships with their current and prospective members. By introducing greater richness and dimension to the discourse we have with our most crucial stakeholders, we can quite possibly renovate the eroding structures of traditional association membership and volunteer leadership for the better.

But only if we can get out of our own way. Going forward, associations will need to do more than pay lip service to the passion, energy and creativity of their members and staff. Going forward, associations will need to reconsider the long-term value of the current incentives that motivate members to invest their discretionary time and attention in the organization. Associations, by definition, are highly bureaucratic organizations. And, in the words of strategy and innovation author Gary Hamel, “the problem is, there’s little room in bureaucratic organizations for passion, ingenuity and self-direction.” Social media are the antithesis of bureaucracy. Social media are pure creation.

We have been given a gift, like manna from heaven. Let us not squander it.

Tags: Technology, Membership, Innovation, We've Always Done It That Way by Jeff
1 Comment »

Put yourself in this scenario: As part of a strategic effort to better position members in the marketplace, your association prioritizes development of a toolkit to guide members in promoting themselves and their expertise. An author is commissioned and months later she presents the document. You have it copy-edited. You have it beautifully designed. It’s ready to go to print. Proudly, you send the electronic proof to the individuals involved in the toolkit’s conceptualization. The unexpected feedback: it’s way off mark and will likely end up in member trash cans.

What went wrong? The document is written so well, it’s comprehensive, it’s beautiful, it’s on deadline. All excellent…except that the final product does not meet its intended purpose. The author’s specialized expertise steered the content too far in one direction.

We could talk about how this happened and how to prevent future occurrences, but that’s an issue for another time. My question now is “What would you do?” 1. Proceed. It is, after all, a well-written document with some useful information and you had planned to distribute it at the upcoming conference. 2. Have the author quickly add a few of the concepts originally discussed so that it’s a little bit closer to that intended and still meets your deadline. 3. Postpone distribution and go back to the drawing board to create the originally planned and strategically conceptualized product.

Would you be willing to start over? Or would you be tempted to deliver a mediocre product on deadline? When does getting it done become more important than getting it done right?

By the way, in real life, the association followed path 2 and I’m sure the landfills are fuller for it.

Tags: Membership, We've Always Done It That Way by Mickie
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How would you like it if Amazon required you to create a new login for each of their partners when buying a non-Amazon fulfilled product? Not much I would guess. It is clearly user unfriendly and would rapidly diminish their partner sales.

However, many associations require exactly that of their members for their web-based services. Features such as job boards, stores, listserves and others are often more cost effective to outsource. However, most associations will allow the vendor to require their own separate login, which doesn’t match the login for the main association web site.

I think the time has come where any serious vendor in the association market should support authentication from another system for their product and associations should begin to demand it.

This level of integration is relatively easy to achieve via web services. Sure, each association/system will have its quirks that may require some tweaking but the basics are well defined.

Hostile user/login management systems immediately cripple your ability to create member value on the web. We, as an industry, shouldn’t tolerate it any longer.

Tags: Technology, Innovation, We've Always Done It That Way by David
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The association community is almost obsessed with strategic planning. Although more room is now being given to the dissenting opinion that perhaps the way we have always done strategic planning is no longer serving us, there are still many out there who stand unquestioningly behind their two-day retreats, their SWOT analyses, and their thirty-nine-page, three-ring-bound strategic plans that effectively become “credenza-ware” for the next two to three years.

There are many problems with traditional strategic planning, and we address several in this book. One critical problem is literally the combination of those two words: strategic and planning. Everyone agrees that associations need strategy. Without a clear strategy, the association would simply wake up each week, look at what is right in front of them, and respond to that. We would expect less than ideal results. A strategy exists to guide decision making and should reflect careful thinking about how and why the association will succeed.

Organizations also need planning. It’s not enough simply to know where you are headed. If you ignore the details of how you are going to get there, then you are likely to end up in a significantly different place, or at the right place, but at the wrong time.

But combining strategy and planning (as is done in traditional strategic planning) is very dangerous, because strategy and planning are very different things. The strategy is incredibly important and relatively stable and constant. It should take a significant amount of information and conversation to produce a strategic change. Planning, on the other hand, does not have that weight. It is a means to an end, and should be much more flexible. But when we combine strategy and plan, we end up adding the weight of the strategy to the plan, and this creates dangerous inflexibility.

Consultant and author Jeffrey Pfeffer recently wrote about a CEO who was heading toward failure because he had “convinced himself that his strategy was the only way to go.” As Pfeffer said, “if you become so attached to your course of action that proving it right becomes more important than your overall success, chances are you are not going to succeed.” (Business 2.0, November 2005)

When plans are too tightly linked to the strategy, then they actually invite blind commitment (”but it’s part of the strategic plan””we can’t change that?!”). While of course your planning process should involve an awareness of and discussion of the strategy, there needs to be some distance, so everyone will be clear about when they are making a strategic move versus when they are modifying a means to an end. The trick is to think and act strategically while modifying your plans, and to do that we recommend simply, but powerfully, changing your language. Talk about strategy. Talk about planning. But do not talk about (or do) strategic planning.

Tags: The Way We Lead, Strategy, We've Always Done It That Way by Jamie
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